Last Sunday was the annual Peshekee Grade Christmas Bird Count. I went with a few birders from around Marquette. At our first spot we were treated to a Barred Owl.

We then headed up to the town of Champion. On the edge of town we stumbled upon a street corner loaded with birds! There were Evening Grosbeaks everywhere! We counted about 80 all together! There were also some Pine Siskins and a few Purple Finches.  

After that we headed to the Peshekee Grade. A quick walk through a boreal marsh yielded us 3 Red Breasted Nuthach, 12 Black Capped Chickadees and 2 Boreal Chickadees! Unfortunately, I wasnt able to get a picture of either of the Boreal Chickadees.

Farther down the road we ran into the other group of birders. They found two Gray Jays!

These two Gray Jays are very tame and are trained to eat of the hand! I was able handfeed them a few times.

We added a few more grosbeaks (including 6 Pine), Siskins and redpolls. 

We ended with 23 Species.

Today (12/6/14), me, my dad, my brother and my grandpa went to look for Snowy Owls in the eastern U.P. Someone reported 28 Snowy's in a few square miles! When you hear a report like that you have to go see what you you can see. When we got to the area where they had been seen, I told my dad to stop so I could look in one of the fields. I saw this way out in the field. (#1)

After that one we drove farther up the road and saw some photographers. I scoped over toward them and saw another snowy! (#2)

The photographers unfortunately flushed that owl.
We drove more and I noticed a weird looking clump of snow. That clump of snow was Snowy #3. While watching that one a snowy flew over us!(#4) After one more snowy (#5) and 10 lifer Sharp tailed grouse we headed into Sault Ste Marie. Of course my dad spotted a beautiful male snowy (#6) in one of the fields on the way. 

On the way back from the soo my dad spotted a snowy (#7) on top of a light pole. It was in the same field we saw the male.

Less than two minutes later my dad said this
"Snowy owls are white and brown but the sun, theres one!"
It was the male we saw earlier!
After a few minutes with that one, we pulled into a storage garage and my brother yelled theres another one!#8

We saw 18 more snowy's before the night was over! Here are some various pictures of some of the ones we saw.

I've been having some computer troubles lately. I will hopefully be getting a post about an amazing weekend I had for snowy owls and a few christmas bird counts soon.

Sorry for the delay  

Today, I was finally able to find a Cackling Goose! My 253th bird for my year! 

Saturday the 18th, I counted Waterbirds at Presque Isle in Marquette. Not nearly as many birds were counted as last week, but still it was a pretty good day with a total of about 300 birds.

I went to my Camp Saturday, too, with my dad, his friend, and one of my brothers. There wasn't many birds around other than Black Capped Chickadees and Blue Jays. 

Friday, the 10th we had the day off of school. So, I decided to count Waterbirds at black rocks in Marquette. It was a slow day day with 163 bird migrating by in a 4 Hour period.
  

Saturday, the 11th I did another waterbird Count at a location about 200 Yards away from black rocks. With a total of 1,218 birds migrating past it was way better than the previous day. Due to the distance of many of these ducks they had to be left unidentified. For a checklist of the birds I counted, check out this link.  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20198206

Sunday, two American White Pelicans were seen in the Marquette Lower Harbor. When we got there they were exactly where they were said to be. They gave me some nice photo opportunities. 

I birded more sunday at Presque Isle in Marquette but was unable to find anything unusual.  

My Mom and three brothers went to the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory on the 3rd and 4th. We got there late on the 3rd so we didn't do any birding that day. The next day I was out birding early. On the way out to the waterbird shack I could tell that it was going to be a cold day. And it was. It was well worth it, though, with over 2000 birds passing the by point! There was a total of 755 Red Necked Grebes, which is amazing in October. American Wigeon were flying in full force, along with Greater Scaup and to a lesser extent with Red Breasted Merganser, White Winged Scoters, Green Winged Teal and Common Loons. In the White Winged Scoter flocks there were also Surf and Black Scoter. Both being Big Year birds for me. Check out the WPBO Waterbird Count blog to see the totals for that day. Now for some Pictures......

FYI:  It was pointed out to me by some friends that the Cackling Geese in my last post were actually small Canada Geese. After looking at the pictures they have too big of bills to be Cackling Geese.  

Till next time, GOOD BIRDING!

Saturday, the 27th My Dad, Mom and 2 of my brothers went to our camp Located in Amasa, Michigan. My camp has pretty much the same habitat as the Pehsekee Grade. The Pehsekee is one of the best spots in Michigan to see boreal species like Gray Jays, Boreal Chickadees, Black Backed Woodpeckers and Spruce Grouse. They also occasionally see American Three Toed Woodpeckers. On Saturday, I was treated to My first Black Backed Woodpecker of the year and my first one for my camp. I was also able to see 3-5 Gray Jays near our camp.  

Sunday, the 28th I was able to find 4 Cackling Geese with about 50 Canada Geese. The cacklers were my 250th bird for the year!!!! I was thrilled to finally hit the 250 mark! 

Wednesday, the 17th there was a Beryllines Humming reported in Grand Marais, Michigan. It is the first one in Michigan and first one North of Texas! It took some convincing but, I was able to take thursday off of school to look for it with my grandpa and Brother. After 5 hours of waiting the bird never showed up. Did it die over night? or did it head south? Later in the night I received an email saying that the Hummer spent the day at a different feeder less then 1 Mile from where we were! I got a text friday morning saying that it was at the feeder that it was seen Thursday. I got out of school a couple hours early to go see it. My Mom and my 3 little brothers came with me. When we got there we saw this on the feeder. Saturday I went again with Scot Stewart. We were able to see it too.   

After watching it for a couple of hours we headed over to the pier and beach. I noticed a tern flying.  My first thought was common tern. Then, I remembered it was September.  I started to take pictures. It turned out to be an Arctic Tern. This is the rarest bird I've ever found!! It's the 24th Record for Michigan!  It is being submitted to the U of M to be added to the record books.  It just makes me want to keep studying and birding even more!